Ben Washam

Ben Washam (1915-1984) was an American animator who worked at Warner Bros. Cartoons from 1941 until 1962, mainly under the direction of Chuck Jones. He also worked on made-for-TV cartoons in the early 1960s. Later, he worked on various Chuck Jones projects at M-G-M; he also directed a few Tom and Jerry cartoons for release in 1967. He did his last work animating commercials for Jay Ward and drawing layouts at Jones' own production company, and retired in 1979. For several years Washam, a gifted natural teacher, gladly taught animation at no charge to eager, young students in weekly classes conducted at his Laurel Canyon home in Los Angeles. He explained that "animation has been good to me and I want to give something back." Indeed he did. Many of Ben Washam's students from the late 1970's, which included Ren and Stimpy layout artist Eddie Fitzgerald, went on to lead the 2D silver age animation revival during the 1990's. Few people were better at boiling down animation mechanics into pertinent, useful methods. There were arguably better animators but none with Washam's stellar gift for articulating and communicating the principles of his craft. Washam was also a very effective cartoonists' union president, serving two separate terms.

His animation of Bugs Bunny is easy to recognize, as he usually let Bugs' incisor teeth taper to a point. Also, he drew relatively wide cheeks on Bugs.